By Dr. Bertrand Ramcharan
National human rights protection systems (NHRPS) can play a strategic role in the transformation of countries, including in the Americas and the Caribbean. Transformation is the key perspective, as suggested by Sonia Cardenas and Rebecca Root in their 2022 book. Human Rights in Latin America: A Politics of Transformation.
The future of human rights in Latin America is uncertain, according to Cardenas and Root. They think that three elements constrain the possibilities for deeper change: poverty and inequality; a climate of impunity; and entrenched exclusionary ideologies. These are also sources of human rights abuses in Latin America. Indeed, they are also sources of human rights abuses in the Caribbean.